Michael Hoffman, director of 'The Last Station'

Michelle Pfeiffer's rendition of Titania has been deemed cardboard, and many critics question her ability to deliver Shakespearean lines effectively. Michael Hoffman Born November 30, 1956 Michael Lynn Hoffman born November 30, 1956 is an American. Kline, a Shakespearean veteran, has that flourish, that golden touch. Injecting the film with fun and pathos, Kline makes a superb Bottom; it's his play and he acts it to the hilt. I couldn't recognize that in 1990, when I first read the book, because I wasn't married. Overall, the Brits give more coherent and resonant performances, especially Friel and West as the romantic couple, a restrained Everett as Oberon, and Rees as the theatrical manager.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film)

A key example is the mud-wrestling bout between Hermia and Helena; one trenchant critic wonders where Jerry Springer is with his whistle at this low point in the performance. Spanning decades, this epic love story captures the enduring power of our first true love, and the wrenching choices we face when confronted with elusive second chances. And Flockhart exudes a wonderful vulnerability and sense of comic timing, as she pursues Demetrius, suffering all manner of indignity and incredulity along the way. Titania woos Bottom in her bower, attended by fairies. And Tucci's Puck suggests sometimes that he has a darker side, but it not so much malicious as incompetent.

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I did live in London for about 15 years of my life, and in Italy for about two. Rhodes Scholars, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite. It starred , , , and. Another odd addition to the play is Bottom's wife. Well, I do now after watching The Best of Me. Everett, like the inspired Kevin Kline as the ham actor Bottom, is utterly at ease with this material in ways that many other cast members are not. Now another one is coming in the form of The Best Of Me, which reports has just found its leading lady in the form of Michelle Monaghan.

Michael Hoffman (American director)

The obvious clumsiness of their performances opens a critical door for the audience: Who would we cast instead in these roles? Rather than letting Shakespeare's original tale tell itself, Hoffman adds scenes that add little to the play's exuberance. Hoffman eradicates this emphasis on female friendship, presenting Titania as a selfish and shrewish wife, bent on keeping the Indian boy mainly to spite Oberon. After surviving an oil rig disaster, Dawson James Marsden gets a call to say that an old friend of his has died and he needs to travel back to his hometown to help sort things out. However after delays due to financing, they handed the directing reigns to Michael Hoffman, although Joel and Ethan did provide the script. The distraught Helena, played as a hand-waving, eye-rolling ditz by Calista Flockhart, hardly fits into the same film with David Strathairn's reserved Duke Theseus, or with Rupert Everett as a slinky Oberon.

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For the German film director, see. Michael Hoffman's 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream transports the drama's action from ancient Athens to an imaginary Italian village named Monte Athena at the turn of the nineteenth century. Befriended by , who provided the funding, Michael's next film was , a humorous look at young Scottish boys who hold up tour buses. While Shakespeare's Bottom is a bluff, self-assured, and good-hearted clown, Hoffman presents a self-conscious, easily disappointed Bottom. Similarly, Hippolyta, his bride-to-be, isn't the powerful Queen of the Amazons, but a bland, yet beautiful, Victorian feminist.

Michael Hoffman Archives

Does the play's action make sense when placed in the nineteenth century; for example, does it seem plausible that Hermia would still be sentenced to death for disobedience to her father? Harry Dean Colin Firth is a seemingly dithering art expert working for the cold, abusive Lionel Shahbandar Alan Rickman. And we travel a lot, and I haul my kids ages 16, 13 and 9 around everywhere. Somehow this version of the play manages to disperse even Bottom's free flowing exuberance. Life and career Hoffman was born in Hawaii and grew up in , played basketball, and attended college at. Kevin Kline's rendition of this working-class character seems out-of-place with his fellow working men when he arrives on the scene in a three-piece suit — gone is Bottom's sensual, down-to-earth appeal.

Michael Hoffman (American director)

A real surprise is the sly comic depth of Calista Flockhart's bicycle-riding Helena, miles from Ally McBeal. He has a plan to get back at his boss, which involves a lost Monet masterpiece. In fact these questions lead us to the film's one saving grace: It forces us to think more carefully about Shakespeare's original artistic conception. Not even Michelle Pfeiffer's commanding loveliness as the fairy queen Titania, and her ability to speak of such things as 'my bower' with perfect ease, can offset the decision to have the actors grapple awkwardly with bicycles. Has switching the setting from Athens to Italy enhanced our understanding of the play? He has made three films with Kline so far , including the aforementioned A Midsummer Night's Dream. Kline's Bottom tactfully humors her mad infatuation, good-natured and accepting.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film)

The mischievous Puck magically enchants Bottom with the head of an ass and Bottom is then seen by the bewitched Titania. He was a cofounder of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival along with Doug Copsey and Victoria Holloway which is celebrating its 30-year anniversary this year. Rather than allowing the language and story of the play to shine, he instead cluttered the performance with gimmicks and gadgets. Similarly, Titania loses much of her psychological complexity in the film. A: That there are laughs. He wrote and directed 2009 , based on the final years of 's life.

In , wrote: A strangely uneven adaptation of the Bard's most famous comedy, Michael Hoffman's Dream is, if nothing else, admirable for its lack of a contrived gimmick. However his death sadly prevented that. A: I wanted to make a movie about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it, to make a movie about the tragicomedy of marriage. Now has debuted three rather cool character posters, featuring Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz and Alan Rickman. Similarly, Hoffman's rendition of the fairy realm negates its mirth and good humor. Her seduction of Bottom, turned to an ass under the spell of Puck Stanley Tucci with horns and impish grin , is riotous.

Michael Hoffman, director of 'The Last Station'

The film made use of 's including the famous , alongside operatic works from , , , and. He grew up in , played basketball, and attended college at. The ensemble cast features as Bottom, and as Titania and Oberon, as Puck, and , , , and as the four lovers. The hoodwinked characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream are meant to be mismatched much of the time. Meanwhile, an acting troupe prepares a play for the entertainment of the Duke. Movie critics agree that Hoffman missed the boat in one essential way: He didn't trust Shakespeare. Many critics have noted the disparity of the acting styles within the film.